I really like the Occultist Archetype. Its powerful, flavorful, adds a little something a regular Arcanist wouldn't be able to do and it doesn't cost you too much stuff. I prefer it over the regular version, really. The only downside is it delays your Exploits which in turn delays access to the Extra Exploit feat.

I do really like Quick Study. The Arcanist has a limited number of prepared spells forcing a choice between utility and combat spells. With Quick Study you don't have to worry about that choice. It just expands your versatility and adaptability a great deal, far beyond leaving slots open ever would.
Consume Magic Items fulfills a similar function, really, provided you have the items and willingness to sacrifice them. I like to get Scribe Scroll to fuel it. It allows you to really use all of your exploits instead of merely relying on your SM SLA.

Instead of the Familiar Exploit you might want to consider the Bloodline Development Exploit choosing the Arcane Bloodline. It also grants a familiar. It won't gain abilities as you level beyond the first, but it'll still gain everything else, and you can still get the Improved Familiar feat. The choice is reasonable because it allows you to use some of the other abilities the bloodline provides if desired, Metamagic Adept specifically, for a mere single point from your reservoir.

Instead of Dimensional Slide you might want to consider School Understanding choosing Conjuration (Teleportation) instead. They offer different kinds of utility, so I often end up with both.

Personally, I rarely take feats to enhance my summoned monsters. I prefer using them for their abilities rather than their physical combat value, allowing me to spend my feats on other stuff, like Extra Exploit. I also think there's already plenty of utility in the regular SM line that I don't feel the need to expand the list with feats either.

Won't using Bloodline Development Exploit (Arcane) limit you to a familiar that is permanently stuck at lv 1?

I guess I'm just annoyed that the first thing some members of the party (which lacks a trap disabler) does when faced with a unknown or potentially dangerous situation is to call on the only NPC in the party to face it. More so as they had made a point to help the Paladin with his redemption quest before.

THERE'S your problem.

If you have no player characters in your group who can handle traps, you really shouldn't be putting traps in your adventures. Or if you do... you should make them more into puzzles the PCs can solve. Of COURSE the players are going to get frustrated if you keep hitting them with traps when they don't have the capabilities to deal with them other than simply triggering them.

My suggestion would be to replace those traps with monsters or hazard type situations they need to bypass via skill checks or other methods other than Disable Device.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to plan ahead better for such encounters in the future. In retrospect I could have made this encounter into a puzzle solving one as you suggested.

I have to point out that this is the very first magical trap the party faced since the start of this campaign. There are very few traps overall in the campaign. The party is equipped to summon monsters and I have hinted to the party's wizard multiple times to pick up Aram Zey's Focus if he is concerned about traps.
The party have access to pretty much any official paizo resource they have.

Sorry if I gave the impression that I'm hitting the party repeatedly with traps or unsolvable encounters.
I just wanted some GMing advice to avoid this situation repeating itself in the future.

Hi James, how do you prevent players from abusing NPC cohorts/followers...

I don't prevent it. If the player characters abuse NPC cohorts and followers, those NPCs abandon the PCs (at best) or rise up against them with their own NPC allies (at worst).

One way to help fight against this is by putting the "character" in the non-player character. If the NPC is just a set of stats, the players have no real investment, but once that NPC has a personality and a history and goals and quirks and all that, the NPC becomes an actual character in the group. Remember that by definition, if it's a non-player character, it's the GM who runs the character. Do your best to personalize recurring NPCs, particularly cohorts and close allies. Make the players come to like them and respect them and value their companionship, and they'll be much less inclined to treat them as nothing but bags of numbers and hit points.

At the very least, make sure the NPC has a name. I assume he/she/it does in this case, but referring to it as the "Bard's Paladin NPC cohort" may be a symptom of the problem. You need to invest these characters with personalities and make them actual characters. Even if that only means roleplaying them when another PC says something callous like "You! Paladin! Get in there and trigger...

Thanks for the advice. The Paladin does have a name and has a set personality for him. In fact the party actually helped him to atone and become a paladin again.

I'm avoiding using character names, just in case my players were to stumble across this post. I don't want to potentially give out spoilers.

In the above situation, I did roleplay the paladin as saying he is unsure how to handle magical traps. The party decided to revisted the trap later and ventured further into the tomb first, before triggering the tomb's defenders when they entered the next area.

I guess I'm just annoyed that the first thing some members of the party (which lacks a trap disabler) does when faced with a unknown or potentially dangerous situation is to call on the only NPC in the party to face it. More so as they had made a point to help the Paladin with his redemption quest before.

I'm going to take your words to mind and roleplay the relationship the paladin has with the party. Try to get the party to respect the paladin as a fellow party member and not "the NPC paladin".
Thank you.

Hi James, how do you prevent players from abusing their NPC cohorts/followers?

In the recent game I'm gming, the party suspect there is a trap in the middle of the room with a magical item laying on top of the trap. They immediately suggest that the Bard's Paladin NPC cohort go pick up the item.
I warned the party over abusing NPCs and they eventually (after a fight with the tomb's guardians) managed to retrieve the magical item.

How would you have handled this?
Is there a better way to prevent NPC abuse, without having to bluntly warn off players from doing so?

I'm hoping for some GMing advice on this, as I never gmed a game with NPC cohorts/followers before. (Other than animal companions or eidolons, which are usually far more under the control of their players.)

Is there any other ways to increase the number of pool points other than sucking power from items?

Also, if I'm a good alignment Occultist, I can still summon evil monsters right? I'm asking, cos I'm a little worried about spells like protection from good. I have seen it locking out a wizard-summoner's pets from attacking a target before.

@Felyndiira,
Could you repost the link? It seems to be broken. I can't get the link to work.

@Melkiador,
Thats good to know. Just read more into the class and the section on converting spells into pool. I don't know why I kept thinking you can only do that at the start of the day or can only use items to fill up your pool.

Other than summoning, are there any other roles I should look out for?
I know arcanists can't prepare as wide a selection of spells as a wizard, so what other role should I focus on? I'm leaning towards just buffing, but should I focus on damaging spells too?

I took Consume Magic Items, but it's rare I find stuff I can consume and when I do, it's tough to sell the party on it. Still, a few scrolls of 2nd level spells end up being a good thing to have on hand.

Then again, I haven't really run out of arcane pool.

You'll suffer early on, summoning celestial (or fiendish!) eagles to harry foes and make mages and archers unhappy, but once you hit 3rd and can summon small earth elementals, you really come into your own. At level 9 or so, your options become incredibly vast, with a slew of SLAs at your fingertips thanks to your summoned monster minions.

I am making my character for PFS. Do you recommend the summon neutral or summon good monsters feats?

I'm currently going for the standard spell focus (conj), augment summoning, superior summons feats, but what other feats should I go for?

Also are the summon affinity rings, worth getting?

Finally, even with the summons, an arcanist is still a 9-level caster. Should I focus on doing something else, other then summoning? Evocation for damage? Buffing?

Hi James, this is kinda of a follow up to my previous kingmaker question.

In your opinion as a GM, if you are running a campaign like kingmaker, where there is plenty of time to craft items, would you allow the upgrading of magical items?
By upgrading, I meant enchanting a a +1 sword to a +2, by paying the gold differences and having the relevant crafting feats. Similar to PFS.

Or would it be better to remove magic item upgrading? Therefore encouraging players to upgrade their city so that they can sell their older items and craft new ones?

The GP cost to players would be similar either way, since most magical items are crafted at half price.

It looks really cool to be able to summon 1 monster as a standard action, but the cost to actually use it seems to increase exponentially, when compared to the amount of arcane reservoir points the arcanist gets per day.

The archetype also lacks any feat support.

Lastly, does feats like summon good monsters or summon neutral monsters work with the occultist or summoner's summon monster (sp)?

The main reason is that grappling, while powerful can be easily defeated at higher levels with a single casting of Freedom of Movement.

The ability to grapple incorporeal creatures at higher levels is also something nice to have.

----
Maybe you could take away other druid powers to fuel his eariler wildshaping?
(!) Also remember that unlikes 3.5, wildshaping don't allow you to swap out your stats, but gain effects as per spells wildshape uses.

Take note that some times the stats and backstory for certain characters would be modified specifically for a particular scenario, module or adventure path.

Example, a character listed as lv 6 with certain character traits in a book on a certain region, may become a lv 9 character with modified traits, if he appears in say the 3rd book of an adventure path.
(Since the 3rd book requires potential NPC enemies to be of that level to challenge the party.)

James Jacobs, also recommands making Briar CG or NG to fit with the ideal of it being Nyrissa's capacity to love.

"I'd change Briar's alignment to NG and explain that as being a personification of the inherent goodness that Nyrissa lost when she went from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Evil—NG being the closest alignment there is to "pure good unadultrated by law or chaos" after all."

I also need to read it a little more thoroughly, never noticed that Nyrissa used to be CG!

@Jericho Graves,
That is what I'm having in mind too! Maybe a bow that fire thorn arrows?

Problem is the alignment of the weapons make sense within the campaign.
Which makes changing their alignment somewhat of a tough choice... :(

@T.A.U.,
Lol, I think that particular player would heavily object to such a change. That... or she goes all crazy.

@Philip Knowsley
lol, I can relate to that. I gave them a short adventure into Tien Xia and they pretty much sold all the Tian weapons that they lack proficiency in.

I'm trying to get them weapons that they can "still use" just not effectively without the right feats, like the bastard sword, or racial weapons.

I do allow retraining, weapon crafting and let selected feats like weapon focus apply to a weapon group.

I'm actually thinking of making Briar NG instead. Since Briar represents the BBEG's ability to love, it would make sense as a sort of representing the only part of of the BBEG that is good.
What do you think?

If you are running an adventure path and an intelligent weapon is listed as a plot important loot for your party, but no one in the party has the right alignment to properly wield this weapon. How would you resolve this issue? (Without having the weapon become effectively a useless loot.)

Before the PCs find the weapon, I'd make sure to change the weapon from whatever it was into a weapon that'd best be used by the PC in the party who's the most about weapons, and/or change the alignment of the weapon if needed to fit that PC. The transformative weapon quality helps too. Further, I'd hopefully KNOW about said weapon before hand, and would encourage the players to play that alignment before hand. Either by flat out saying "If you are a neutral good scimitar fighter... it'll pay off!" or by being tricky and saying "This campaign has a Sarenrae feel, so plan accordingly." If, for example, the weapon in question was a NG scimitar.

If you have a specific AP or weapon in mind, of course... you'd do better to not beat around the bush and flat out ask me specifically about your specific case, though.

And the 2 main weapons I'm concern about are Ovinrbaane in book 3 and Briar in book 5-6.

Both are CN weapons that the main weapon users, the two Paladins can't use. And as I don't know if the new player would be joining us full-time, I'm can't count on him to make a character suited to wield either weapons.

I could remake Briar into bow or other suitable weapon for the Bard/ruler to wield effectively. But is this the only/best option? Briar after all is an important plot item for the AP.

But Ovinrbaane, being a Gorum influenced weapon, with quite a bit of flavor... I'm stumped.

Sorry for asking such a long question. Really hope you can help me.
Thank you.

PS: Kingmaker is really nice. My players love the map and kingdom building (UC rules). Hope you all can come up with something just as sandbox like in a future AP!
\

If you are running an adventure path and an intelligent weapon is listed as a plot important loot for your party, but no one in the party has the right alignment to properly wield this weapon. How would you resolve this issue? (Without having the weapon become effectively a useless loot.)

*!WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!*
STOP reading on if you are a player or want to avoid spoilers)

Hi, I have been GMing for a party that is half way into book 2.
While reading forward into books 3 to 6, I realized that a number of powerful artifact intelligent weapons in these books are CN and would be a problem for my party, as the martial characters are all non CN or CG.

How can/should I resolve this mismatch of weapons to characters' alignments?

Is there any other PC or builds for throwing that I'm missing out?
The basic ideal is just a Ulfen or Ulfen-like character.

Both the throwing monk(far side or somthing?) and the flying blade Can be decent throwing weapon guys. IMOP. For a barbarian like guy throwing Will have to be a side job. But with a reach weapon, combat reflexes and power attack is all you need and all the other feats Can be dedicatet to throwing, it wont be the King of the World but in many situations it May be worth it. Unchained barbarian with str 16, dex and con 14 wis 12 int 8 cha 10 pehaps is not bad and Can do this just fine.

Hummm.... your right... I just tried again to make my str-based axe-throwing ulfen build work and the feat requirements alone makes it really hard to pull it off.

I may just have to switch to a switch fighter build based off weapons that where actually used by real life vikings nobles. A Sword-Archer build.

IQuarent wrote:

You could go Monk flurry shuriken, then invest in feats that make shuriken better.

Slashing Grace:

Choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword). When wielding your chosen weapon one-handed, you can treat it as a one-handed piercing melee weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a swashbuckler's or a duelist's precise strike) and you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to that weapon's damage. The weapon must be one appropriate for your size.

If you are using the one-handed weapon for throwing, I don't see why it wouldn't work...

Slashing Grace has been discussed with my local venture captain and the ruling is that it only works with One-Handed Weapons in melee. The online discussions have been back and forth, but since this is for PFS, I will go with my VC's ruling.

While not what I have in mind, the ideal of a shuriken throwing monk would be a very fun build tho!

I have been eyeing the Ulfen Guard PC for a while and thought of making him a Thrower/Switch Fighter that specializes in axes. Range attacking using Str at later levels using a belt of the mighty hauler

However, the more I read up the feat options, the more it seems that it would be much more better to pull off a Dex based axe thrower instead.

There just don't seems to be much incentive to play a Str-based thrower over a pure dex-based one, given that feats like slashing grace allows dex to be used to add to damage.

Is there any reason I'm overlooking that makes a Str build on par with a Dex build?

I believe slashing grace only adds dex to dmg for melee attacks, not for thrown weapons.

Well... its a little confusing, but most people seems to read it as it does give dex to thrown weapons... so... I'm just going with the majority view?

Cap. Darling wrote:

If you go UG. Str based with good dex is the Way. If you just want a thrower UG is not really the Best way and a balanced approch(but with dex focus) seem to be the Best.

But since UG is the Way this is pointing i suggest a reach weapon and combat reflexes at level 1 along with QuickDraw. That Way you Can Throw stuff at folks and when they close in you get a extra attack.

I did thought of going with a mix Str+Dex build, but there just don't seems to be enough points to go around. Every version I came up to get more dex, seems to call for a 777 build, aka 7 Int, Wis and Cha, to get more points for dex and str.

I have been eyeing the Ulfen Guard PC for a while and thought of making him a Thrower/Switch Fighter that specializes in axes. Range attacking using Str at later levels using a belt of the mighty hauler

However, the more I read up the feat options, the more it seems that it would be much more better to pull off a Dex based axe thrower instead.

There just don't seems to be much incentive to play a Str-based thrower over a pure dex-based one, given that feats like slashing grace allows dex to be used to add to damage.

Is there any reason I'm overlooking that makes a Str build on par with a Dex build?

Except this isn't a Charisma to saves ability. This is a Charisma replacing Dexterity to saves ability. Totally different.

It doesn't keep even, as most things do when they don't stack. In regards to the final Reflex save, it's actually LOWER than if I hadn't taken Prophetic Armor at all! (In which case I would have had Dex and Cha to the save.)

I really don't think the developers meant for a FAQ on non-stacking to actually LOWER your numbers rather than keep them even.

I feel your pain Ravingdork. The faq is a banhammer that affected too many builds in order to fix issues with a couple of broken builds. And is not too clear on all the cases, which leads to a ton of confusion.

On the topic of "Divine Protection feat stack with the Charisma bonus from the lunar oracle's Prophetic Armor revelation", unfortunately I don't think they stack. Namely both seems to be untyped, aka just flat out Cha bonus to reflex save.

Benefit: Choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword). When wielding your chosen weapon one-handed, you can treat it as a one-handed piercing melee weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a swashbuckler's or a duelist's precise strike) and you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to that weapon's damage. The weapon must be one appropriate for your size.

Where you can make a character/s, play or replay any scenarios for the current season (1 year) and at the end of it, you must retire that character/s.
(Each player can only play or run a scenario once for that season.)

I know of player and gms with a whole bunch of character ideals, but would only commit to actually make a few, as they know there only so many games you can play or gm.

This way people can buy the new materials and get try them out on new characters. Without having to worry about running out of scenarios to play or avoid buying new materials, cos there just isn't enough games left to play a new character.

Can someone help answer the below questions? (I posted them above, but no one gave an answer.)

@GM Lamplighter, Thanks for highlighting this rule.
3) So as per the Thrown Weapons section of Melee and Ranged Weapons under Weapons, does it mean you CAN throw any weapon as per that weapon and NOT AS AN IMPROVISED weapon?
Example, throw a Greataxe as a Greataxe and not throwing it as an improvised weapon.

4) If you have a feat like Raging Hurler and Quick draw, you can actually throw Greataxes up to your usual normal rate of attacks, while raging?
Raging Hurler - While raging, you can throw a two-handed weapon as a standard action, and you double the range increment for weapons you throw. If you also have the Quick Draw feat, you can throw two-handed weapons at your full normal rate of attacks. Further, you can pick up an unattended object that you can use as a improvised weapon within your reach as part of the attack action to throw that item.

5) Also on Raging Hurler + quick draw, does this only works with actual twohanded weapons, like Greataces? Or can you use this feat to throw one-handed weapons using two hands? Example, throw a bunch of Battleaxes instead of Greataxes?

6) Based on the Thrown Weapons section of Melee and Ranged Weapons under Weapons, you can throw non ranged weapons with a couple of listed penalties, so why do GMs treat non-ranged thrown weapons as improvised? Doesn't the listed penalties, like -4 to hit and more time needed for the attack already penalise using non-range weapons this way?

7) Or is improvised used only when a player wants to do something like throw a two-handed weapon as a standard action?

The bloodline arcana makes the empyreal and sage wildblooded bloodlines a big gray area. What does changing the ability score associated with all class features conflict with?

Another good question for Mr. Seifter, I think. ^_^

Hmm, it's the text of the arcana that does that, rather than the archetype's swap, so it would seem OK to me at a glance. Similarly to how if a monk archetype replaced purity of body with a bonus feat, and you used the bonus feat to pick Extra Ki, despite the text of Extra Ki giving you more ki, it shouldn't interfere with ki pool. This is purely my own personal speculation, not an official ruling of any kind.

Sorry, but does the new FAQ treats class skills as a class feature?

Does this means that Sage and Empyreal wildblooded sorcerers use Int and Wis for all their Class Skills now?

"You use your Wisdom, rather than your Charisma, to determine all class features and effects relating to your sorcerer class"

The actual text of a skill itself is not a class feature under any circumstances, even if the list of what skills are considered class skills is so considered by archetypes when it comes to altering and replacing (because archetypes make changes to all sorts of things, and they call them all "alternate class features").

Thanks for the clarification!

Knowing some players may think otherwise, could this clarification be stated in the FAQ as well? To prevent confusion?

The bloodline arcana makes the empyreal and sage wildblooded bloodlines a big gray area. What does changing the ability score associated with all class features conflict with?

Another good question for Mr. Seifter, I think. ^_^

Hmm, it's the text of the arcana that does that, rather than the archetype's swap, so it would seem OK to me at a glance. Similarly to how if a monk archetype replaced purity of body with a bonus feat, and you used the bonus feat to pick Extra Ki, despite the text of Extra Ki giving you more ki, it shouldn't interfere with ki pool. This is purely my own personal speculation, not an official ruling of any kind.

Sorry, but does the new FAQ treats class skills as a class feature?

Does this means that Sage and Empyreal wildblooded sorcerers use Int and Wis for all their Class Skills now?

"You use your Wisdom, rather than your Charisma, to determine all class features and effects relating to your sorcerer class"

I have a lv 12 seeker character that gets affected by so many faqs since I retired her that I doubt she is in any way legal now.

Btw, does this means that if an archetype changes class skills and the player wishes to retrain into another archetype, that player would also have to pay to retrain the class skills, as they are also considered a class feature? (As per the retrain rules.)

@Nefreet,
1) I can't find the entry where it says improved weapons have a damage cap/chart/listed damage, is this based solely off Improvised Weapon Mastery's damage list?
1a) Does this also means that with Improvised Weapon Mastery a thrown greataxe would deal 2d6 damage?

@DM_Blake
2) What if the character has a feat like Two-Handed Thrower? Which has a description text of "You hurl weapons with both hands and with great force, sometimes using a whirling technique to send your weapon flying through the air at tremendous speeds."
As a GM, would it be ok to allow the greataxe damage if the player can argue that his character would have thrown it in such a way as the above text? Or justify the lower damage as per your description of a greatclub?

@GM Lamplighter, Thanks for highlighting this rule.
3) So as per the Thrown Weapons section of Melee and Ranged Weapons under Weapons, does it mean you CAN throw any weapon as per that weapon and NOT AS AN IMPROVISED weapon?
Example, throw a Greataxe as a Greataxe and not throwing it as an improvised weapon.

4) If you have a feat like Raging Hurler and Quick draw, you can actually throw Greataxes up to your usual normal rate of attacks, while raging?
Raging Hurler - While raging, you can throw a two-handed weapon as a standard action, and you double the range increment for weapons you throw. If you also have the Quick Draw feat, you can throw two-handed weapons at your full normal rate of attacks. Further, you can pick up an unattended object that you can use as a improvised weapon within your reach as part of the attack action to throw that item.

5) Also on Raging Hurler + quick draw, does this only works with actual twohanded weapons, like Greataces? Or can you use this feat to throw one-handed weapons using two hands? Example, throw a bunch of Battleaxes instead of Greataxes?

6) Based on the Thrown Weapons section of Melee and Ranged Weapons under Weapons, you can throw non ranged weapons with a couple of listed penalties, so why do GMs treat non-ranged thrown weapons as improvised? Doesn't the listed penalties, like -4 to hit and more time needed for the attack already penalise using non-range weapons this way?

7) Or is improvised used only when a player wants to do something like throw a two-handed weapon as a standard action?

Looking up on improvised weapons, it states:
To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match.

1) Does that means that if a Greataxe is used as an improvised thrown weapon, its damage would be a 1d12, the normal damage for a great axe?

2) What if a larger then weapon sized item is used as an improvised thrown weapon? Say a large iron cauldron? What would the damage be then?

Could I ask what is the current party's race make up and religion? Like other then the Dwarf cleric, what are the races and religions/alignments of the other characters?

Would having other religious or community leaders step in help defuse the situation?

---

Off hand if my party ever does something like this in our game, I planned out a contingency plan.

1) The Visiting RelativeS (En Masse)-
Grab every sibling, Aunty, Uncle, Cousin, Grandma, Grandpa and parents of your party's characters you can grab your hands on and have them all visit the kingdom at the same time.

Flood your party's time (and energy) with encounters of Aunties demanding to be brought out for shopping, complaints of grandaunties on the horrible living conditions, young cousins disrupting the spellcaster's prayers or precious rest, Parents demanding when their child will get married and have grand kids. Have parents of fellow party members thrust their unmarried members into marriage proposals with fellow party members!

Top it off with relatives comparing them with their (more successful) brothers and sisters. "Why they are happily married with successful careers and children! Whey are YOU going to get your act together and do the SAME???"

No one will want to have a coup when it involves confronting their nagging moms and aunties over why they are wasting time fighting, when they should be courting so and so, earning more money or having babies.
And no one will be planning an attack on a city when their whole extended family is staying in it.

One aspect of this discussion that I'm surprised hasn't been brought up in this particular thread (though it's common in others) is looking at this from a game balance perspective.

A small-sized Halfling, a medium-sized Human and a large-sized Hill Giant all gain the same mechanical benefits from wearing Adamantine Full Plate.

The Halfling and Human pay the same amount regardless of their size, but what should the Giant pay?

Pricing it as [(armor×2)+adamantine] keeps the benefits vs the costs on par with Halflings and Humans.

Pricing it as [(armor+adamantine)×2] makes the benefit not worth the cost. If large-sized armor conferred some additional benefit based purely on size, the argument for pricing special materials in this manner would make sense. Or if large-sized characters earned double WBL, it would be as affordable as Humans buying their medium-sized gear.

But pricing double for no additional benefit doesn't seem very balanced.

That does makes sense from a balance prospective.

Given that a number of classes like Hunters, Druids and Summoners can have animal companions or Eidolons of unusual sizes, it does make sense to clarify what is the correct formula, especially in relation to balancing the game.

Pet classes already have to pay more for equipment, as they they have to effectively equip two characters.It would feel very awkward if pet classes have to spend far more then their party counterparts when it comes to purchasing special material equipment for themselves and their pets.
In a party with shared wealth, this drain on party resources would be even more noticeable and only serve to discourage playing those classes with pets.